Holistic Healing - journeying into holistic health

We Are What We Eat

What Are You?

We’ve all heard that expression, “You are what you eat”. It’s something that I have heard my whole life, but I never really thought about it that much, until I was forced to. I am one of these people that have never really had to go on a diet, I haven’t ever been vigilant about checking my weight daily; I would measure how I felt by how I fit in my jeans.

Calories and Such

My generation was raised on counting calories. Now we’ve learned that it’s really not about the calories but the ingredients that count, especially since half the ingredients these days can’t be pronounced. Thankfully the news is finally getting out about just how bad the chemical additives are in our food. Unfortunately though, even the manufacturers often don’t know what’s in them and wouldn’t want to tell you if they did. We got sold on the convenience of fast convenient food starting in the 70’s with commercials touting “Give Mom a night off” with Kentucky Fried Chicken and it went ballistic from there. Nowadays people eat out more and often don’t make anything from scratch. The more intervention with food the worse it will be for us. The food corporations today are the cigarette manufacturers of years gone by. We got sold on the convenience but lost a lot in the process.

Being Vigilant

I have always felt that I ate quite well. I tried to eat lots of fruits and vegtables and made most meals from scratch. I have always been appalled by seeing what people have in their shopping carts, and it has only gotten worse since my eating habits have changed. I have completely cut out dairy and red meat and wheat as well as all processed foods. It was a challenge in the beginning, but has certainly gotten easier with practice and time. The medical industry has certainly been a huge disappointment to me throughout this journey, but you start to look into the food industry, you begin to see patterns of politics and greed everywhere as well. Lobbyist in government for corn, wheat, dairy and meat are what have driven the Canadian Food Guide or Standard American Diet to look like it does. In reality the government and the medical profession know that the food pyramid should be turned upside down to be truly effective, but of course there’s no money in broccoli.

Avoid the Center

I have heard many times that you should avoid the center of the grocery store because that is where the junk food and processed foods are. It’s true, on the outside is the dairy, fresh produce, meat and bread. I am sure that grocery stores are set up on purpose to have you go down every aisle so that you spend more, it works. Lately I am having a hard time finding anything that I want at our local grocery store. I read labels like crazy now (makes for a long shopping stint) and I refuse to buy anything that has more than two words I can’t pronounce. It’s a challenge! I try to buy organic whenever I can but truly sometimes the price difference is substantial and out of reach. Ridiculous to know that produce that isn’t organic is subsidized and the organic isn’t. Makes me want to support organics even more.

Choices

Something as seemingly easy as eating has become a job of sorts. It’s a good job, a job that definitely makes a difference but eating well is no longer a given. We all have choices of our food everyday, we have to try to make the best most informed decision that we can. Our most effective way of choosing what we want available comes down to the simple rule of demand and supply. If we as consumers start demanding more organic food and better labels with our pocket books it can happen. You vote every time you shop, so make your vote count for yourself and our world at large and be mindful of what you eat, because as we all know, “You are what you eat”.